Issue 2

I don't know all of them or actually very many. The ones I listed are the most outrageous and therefore most fun to read. Although Kos himself can be out there, it's his commenters, as well as those at DU, that provide the really wild stuff. By the way, I learned about these sites from conservative blogs. Conservative bloggers read these sites to see what the other side is up to. That being said, I think there is a tendency for conblogs to focus on the nuttier stuff and paint all liberals and/or Democrats with a wide brush. Just as Pat Robertson (often and wrongly cited by the MSM as the standard-bearer for the religious right) does not speak for me as a Christian, I know that DU and Kos do not speak for most Democrats. I'm troubled when conblogs point to some of the crazy stuff and say "Look what those nutty libs/Dems think about so and so."

I also read lib sites to check myself: Have I really switched sides or not? Without fail I find myself scratching my head, wondering "What I was thinking all those years?"

This is for another time, but two short observations. Liberals for the most part (in my experience) are not haters of America, as I read on so many consites. Even Rush, who should know better, spouts this crap. Second, libbloggers are much more profane and less civilized that conbloggers. One more. Before my conversion, my idea of a conservative was that of a dumb, mean, rich white guy just trying to make himself richer on the backs of the rest of us. I've been astounded by the depth of thought, the self-examination, the real curiosity about ideas, ethics, morals, etc. that cons have considered and do consider. I never experienced that on the left; it was just unexamined dogma posing as a political philosophy.